Although we had thought winter was here already, we got a week of thawing (which made everything a lake of ice), but it’s looking serious now. Luckily, yesterday was nice and even sunny at times although only topping out at 20 degrees. So Will and I got busy splitting up another huge pile of firewood. Yes, our woodshed, the pen in the goat shed, the piles under the storage barn eves, and the two old pig sheds are stuffed full.

Both of our ex-pig houses are stuffed full of about a cord and a half of wood each.

By continuing to cut and split wood, we’re freeing up a lot of time next summer and fall so we can get other projects done. Will still has a huge pile of slab wood stacked by the sawmill, several piles of logs around the yard and two piles out in the edge of the pasture! (Think we have enough wood?!) It’s such a great feeling though, as both Will and I have seen hard times when you had to wade through blowing, drifting snow to hunt up enough wood to last the night.

Here’s the six-foot-high pile of firewood Will and I split yesterday when the weather was nicer.

Yesterday afternoon, David and I set up the Christmas tree then hauled up the decorations and lights from the basement. We have enough to choose from, inheriting my late husband Bob’s mothers decorations, Mom and Dad’s, plus fifty some years of our own. Mittens had a picnic! She LOVES boxes and bags. David and Ashley strung lights all across the front porch and side of the house, then all the way down the house garden fence, building an archway (which I’m going to keep) over the backyard gate, then down to the duck fence and even their house! Wow! I think planes will begin landing in our yard.

The “decorating for Christmas” frenzy last night. Notice Mittens pouncing around the boxes.

Will got the new tire pumped up and he and David got it on the tractor last night. So that’s a job well done. And the tire’s permanently out of the house at last. Whew!

Will pumping up the tractor tire after putting in the new inner tube

— Jackie

8 COMMENTS

  1. A tractor tire isn’t to bad in the house. My dad would keep surprising the family with something. We had the major part of a engine in the house for about a week. The temp was way to cold to be able to work on it outside and no garage. I remember coming home to a duck pinned in the living room in front of the tv with a broken leg. It was watching tv. Getting up one morning to catfish swimming around in the bath tub. Dad had brought them home to go into a pond. Never a dull moment at our home.

    • Wow, it sounds just like home!!! I’ve had a wounded grebe in the bathtub, a calf in the bathtub (without water, of course), baby pigs in the woodbox, fish in the washtub and a coyote under the bathtub! Ain’t life great???

  3. Hey mom you may want to measure those pig house each looks like 2-3 cords I was just going off what appears to be the plywood sheets unless the picture distorted the way it appears. Love from from 56 degree southeast Alaska

    • Nah, the back wall is only 4′ high and the sheds are only 4’x8′. Even though relatively small, we love them and they sure keep the split wood nice and dry.

  4. Our wood sheds are full and we have about seven cords in the yard to cut up when an bay empties out. I don’t understand people who wait until they are almost out to order wood from the professional wood cutters. Around here many state and federal commercial wood lots don’t allow cutting until there is enough snow cover. We cut about half of ours on our 13 acres and buy some log length.
    The jet stream is still pushing warm moist air into central Alaska and we havent been below 28 for ten days with very icy roads as we had a lot of below zero on late November.

  5. Decorating for Christmas is always more fun when you have assistants! My grand kids helped this year and had a lot of fun looking at their moms special baby ornaments. Getting your firewood done now will surely be a blessing as winter weather gets worse. Stay warm :)

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